No doubt, dissertation writing is an awful and dreadful process, especially when students have less developed time management and task management skills. The lack of organisation and haphazard writing practices are the major problems that make the dissertation writing process daunting. In short, dissertation writing will be easy for students who make a planner specifying the time required to complete a dissertation and follow it strictly. However, students who start dissertation writing without setting deadlines and following a routine often feel drained.
Basically, the dissertation writing process can be divided into five major chapters: introduction, literature review, material and methods, results and findings, and conclusion. All in all, each step demands students to follow certain guidelines or formatting instructions, but the dissertation analysis chapter is one of the most difficult parts to start for students. Thus, this article is all about guiding students about ways that can assist them in starting a dissertation analysis chapter.
Dissertation Analysis Chapter – A Brief Introduction:
The data analysis is most probably the fourth chapter in a dissertation, while the third and fifth chapters are material and methods, and conclusion, respectively. Data analysis is the process of cleansing, organising, inspecting, transforming, and data modelling techniques that are devised for discovering useful pieces of information to extract conclusions or make decisions. It has several facets and approaches, allowing researchers to extract information from all types of raw data collected by using several different types of techniques such as experiments, case studies, interviews, questionnaires, or direct observation. In short, the purpose of the dissertation analysis chapter is to organise large scattered data into a small manageable form so the hypothesis can either be rejected or supported by observing patterns in data.
Steps To Start The PhD Dissertation Analysis Chapter:
Basically, the data analysis starts by collecting raw data and ends by converting it into information necessary to sum up the scientific discussion in a PhD dissertation. However, the data collection process itself comprises several different steps. The following are some steps that students must consider to take a head start in the dissertation analysis chapter writing process.
Step 1: Preparatory Phase For Data Analysis:
The preparatory data analysis phase itself is a multi-factorial process that must start by making some wise decisions, including the right form of data that can best explain facts to be proven, the most appropriate method of data collection, and the best tool or technique to set the stage for analysis.
The Right Form Of Data That Can Best Explain Facts To Be Proven:
What will be the right form of data that a researcher needs to collect to prove a PhD dissertation claim? If a student succeeds in correctly answering this question, then the chances that he will also take all remaining decisions correct will increases many times. Basically, the data can be presented in two prime ways: qualitative or textual form and quantitative or numerical form. It is the hypotheses and the research questions that can help a PhD scholar choose the right form of data to be collected and proven in a dissertation.
The Most Appropriate Method Of Data Collection:
The next most important decision in the preparatory phase of the dissertation analysis chapter is to decide on the most appropriate method recommended for collecting data in the chosen form. For example, if in the previous stage, a researcher decided to collect quantitative data, then the right options for collecting it may include experiments, direct observations, and fixed-ended questionnaires or interviews. Contrastingly, if a claim, hypothesis, and research question can best be proved or answered by qualitative data, then the right option for data collection may include questionnaires, literature reviews, interviews, case studies, and surveys.
The Best Tool Or Technique To Set The Stage For Analysis:
Qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques and tools vary greatly. Under the umbrella of qualitative research, the inferences can be drawn by choosing non-statistical data analysis techniques, including content analysis, thematic analysis, discourse analysis, and narrative analysis. Simultaneously, the most sought-after qualitative tools and software include NVivo and AMOS. Likewise, for analysing data in the form of quantitative data, the PhD scholar must apply the rules of statistical data analysis techniques.
The statistical data analysis may include descriptive data analysis (meant for starting the characteristics of data) and inferential statistical analysis (used to extract conclusions based on information provided by the descriptive analysis). Furthermore, tools and software that aid PhD scholars in performing statistical data analysis include SPSS, EXCEL, AMOS, EViews, NVivo, STATE, Minitab, and MATLAB. Thereby, the preparatory phase of PhD dissertation analysis chapter includes making three right decisions to analyse the content or data effectively. After making all these decisions, the next process must be to conduct the analysis based on these decisions.
Step 2: Analysis Phase:
To start the analysis phase, a PhD scholar must include collecting data from the decided participants via the appropriate tool of data collection. The data is often collected in a scattered form, so by entering it into the data analysis tool, one can easily arrange it to observe patterns in it. These tools also offer a variety of tests that can be applied to data to know the possible association between variables, often in graphical form. Graphs and other visual forms of data representations help the researcher interpret data with great ease. The graphical representation of raw data is the last phase in the dissertation analysis; thus, a researcher can move on to the next stage after completing it. He can also hire a PhD dissertation writing service in case of failure at any stage.
Step 3: Finalising Process:
Before writing chapter four and the dissertation analysis chapter, a PhD scholar must complete the first two steps. These steps increase confidence and help in the smooth drafting of the data analysis chapter. After all is done, before moving towards a conclusion, proofreading to identify potential errors and editing is also necessary.
Final Words:
The word impossible has no connection with any academic writing process, so a student must take a positive approach to set started. Dissertation writing is the most time-consuming process in the whole doctorate degree tenure and drafting the dissertation analysis chapter is the lengthiest part of the dissertation writing. But taking step by step approach and making the right decisions at each turning point, as explained in this article, can speed up your progress.